


Stage Weapons

by Starcrossedsky



Series: Bladework [12]
Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Politcal AU, Arietta the Wild has no manners and WILL read your mail, the Arietta isn't stupid she just isn't good at language agenda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28130379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starcrossedsky/pseuds/Starcrossedsky
Summary: The only person who has to believe in the thrust of a sword on the stage is the audience. All of the actors know it's faked.
Relationships: Arietta the Wild & Fon Master Ion
Series: Bladework [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/755841
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Stage Weapons

**Author's Note:**

> Set ~sometime~ during Hilt and Pommel.

The Isle of Feres is a wreck, a shell of a port town on a scrap of island nobody cares about. Empty, full of ghosts.

Van says that it's probably where you were born. The dead town doesn't feel like it could ever be home, but perhaps he's right. The ghosts don't bother you as much as they do the regular guards or Dist and his handful of research assistants. It would make sense, if they recognized you as one of their own.

You find it hard to care. Van says it's an important job, watching over the island, but it mostly feels like he wants you out of the way. You'd happily go back to Daath, if it meant you weren't stuck on this unnatural island, slowly circling an invisible point under the ocean, any longer.

\----

You get your wish. The Tartarus docks on the island, and you and your big brother are allowed back on. Being on board a ship is always stressful for you, with all the unnatural noise, but after the silence of the island, it's a welcome relief. 

Van is in a bad mood, and Sync is in a worse one, so you avoid both of them. Largo is okay - he's always treated you something like you think a human father would have - but you're not really in the mood for human company. Human company is so much _work_ , when their body language is so different from what you're used to.

So you wander the parts of the ship where no one goes, by yourself because your brother won't fit into the hallways, until something catches your attention.

It's a box of clothing. It's off-white and rough, but what catches your attention is how strongly it smells. Your nose is more sensitive than most humans', or at least you pay attention to it more, so by your standards the clothes in the box have a very strong scent. Humans don't usually let their clothes get to the point where they smell that strong.

It's a familiar smell. The clothes in the box smell of Ion. You'd know his general smell anywhere.

They could be Sync's, you suppose. (You're not sure how you've gotten into a situation in your life where you know _two_ sets of people with identical scents, but perhaps that's why Asch and Ion wound up friends.) But you can't imagine Sync wearing something like this, just because it _does_ look like something Ion would wear. Sync hates Ion like Ion did something to him to deserve it.

You can't be sure, however, not with the limitations of your human nose. So with a glance around, you gather the rough fabric robe sitting on top into your arms, and take it to your brother.

\----

Your brother confirms it after only one sniff, and adds more detail - the scents of sweat, and distress, and not nearly as much soap as human clothes usually have on them. A liger doesn't have the context to put these things together into a useful whole, but you have lived among humans as a human for five years now, and you do.

Prisoner's clothes. Ion was kept here, as a prisoner on this ship, without you ever knowing.

You sit with the robes in your lap as evening turns into night outside the ship, heart seized by an emotion you can barely explain.

Van and Ion weren't friends anymore. You knew that, had put it together with the way they kept circling in opposite directions, with opposite goals. But you wouldn't have thought that Van would go so far, that things had gotten bad enough between them, that Van would keep Ion as a _prisoner_ here.

And yet, here you are. Here you are, where you've somehow wound up on Van's side of things instead of Ion's. Where you're helping someone who hurt your most important person, the one who looked at you and saw something of value under the grime.

You cry into the robe. Your brother purrs reassuringly, but even his warm presence can't stop the tears. Does Ion think you betrayed him for Van? Is that why he doesn't look at you anymore?

_If you start over, instead of expecting him to be the person you remember..._

Asch's words drift back to you as the tears subside. They still don't make sense, really, but Asch is the only person who has told you anything that gives you a reason to hope in these last few years. And Asch told to think of Ion as a new person.

If Ion was a new person, and he saw you working with Van...

Of course he wouldn't trust you, then. Of course he wouldn't let you get close, if he and Van were really so much at odds.

You want to scream. You bury your face in your doll and take a deep breath instead. You can still make this right. There has to be a way that you can make this right.

There has to be.

\----

The ship pulls into Daath's harbor two days later, and you don't wait for any of the others before you climb onto your brother's back and take off for Daath. You don't really think Ion will be there, but you think it has to be worth a try.

He isn't, but he has _been_ to Daath and away again, while you were on Feres. Ion, but only Ion, not Asch or Anise or any of their other friends. He was only in Daath long enough to do some research and do something with Sync before leaving again.

Which, that in itself is strange, even if it wasn't for everything else. Ion and Sync never interact, because Van doesn't want anyone to know that they're identical under Sync's mask. You only know because they smell so much alike that you bothered to notice everything else about them that's the same. You never said anything, so you don't even know if Van realizes that you know.

Cantabile regards you with some suspicion. She's always been intimidating, reminding you more than a little of your mother. And you can't deny that after you, after Asch, she's the person you would be most comfortable entrusting Ion's safety to.

But you don't know what her motivations are, and you don't think she's ever really approved of you. That makes it hard for you to trust her, and causes you to duck your head nervously under her gaze.

Cantabile regards you for a moment, her one eye fixed on you, and then huffs to herself. "I don't know what Van was thinking," you hear her mutter, quiet enough that it would have been nothing more than a mumble in the ears of anyone else. But the cathedral is quiet; by the standards of the natural world, it's practically silent; and your hearing is good.

"Ion was here," you say, rather than any indication that you heard her comment. It's better if people don't realize how much you can hear; Ion always used to ask you afterwards about things he might not have been able to hear himself, when you were at his side. You were his bodyguard, and it was your job to be noticed as little as possible unless he needed you to be.

"He was," Cantabile says, watching you carefully. "But if there was something you needed from him, I'm afraid he was only here for a few days, and has already departed again."

It's not surprising, but you're still a little disappointed. "Did he leave a message?" you ask. You don't expect him to, but some part of you holds onto hope like the last seeds cached by the forest animals, which might grow into sprouts come spring if they're lucky enough.

"None for you," Cantabile says. Your face must fall, because she adds, "I'm sorry."

"For Asch, then," you guess.

Cantabile's expression is confirmation enough. And, well, it's not as though you expected anything different. If Ion was on the ship with Van, then of course Asch wouldn't have been with him. It's obvious that Asch has broken from Van completely.

You don't understand why, but you don't understand Asch very well at all. Until he became friends with Ion, you thought he was just mean, and that Van was the one who kept him in line, like your mother keeping some of the pack members who were good at hunting but too vicious to help with the cubs. Now, you think he might have some softer places.

"Is it anything I can help with?" you ask quietly. You shift your weight, squeezing the doll in your arms. "If Ion needs something..."

Cantabile regards you for a moment, and then says, "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to tell you. Since he's charged me with taking care of Daath in his absence, you're more likely to run into Asch than I am." You nod agreement. "The Fon Master said to tell Asch to revisit the passage they talked about, because he found new information that affects the interpretation. If that means anything to you, then I suppose you're worthy of bearing the message."

It doesn't, but you nod your head anyway. "I'll tell him," you say. "Thank you."

It seems that's all that either of you have to say to each other, and so you scurry away from Cantabile, turning the words over in your mind.

\----

It has to refer to the Daathic scriptures. You don't care about them _that_ much, but you remember that Ion used to study them a lot. And Asch is a Maestro, like Van, so he must have studied them as well at some point.

You don't understand a lot of scripture, but you know that you've never seen Ion and Asch talk about it. And the phrasing is so strange, that you have to think that it's referring to something else, something that only they know.

Still, you go down to the library to see what you can find out anyway.

And you take a couple friends with you. Most people think that all of your friends are large, built for combat, but you have smaller friends too, friends that you made in the forests around Daath, that people don't notice in stables when they come to visit you. You ask two of them for a favor, and take them with you to the library.

This part of it isn't disturbed that often, because only people actively studying scripture come down here. Even though it's been a couple months, your friend should be able to pick up on Asch's scent. And if Ion has been here recently... You just have to look for the place that has both their scents.

You give the friend with the better sense of smell, the one with only one eye and a white streak along his ear, a sock you slipped in and stole from Asch's rooms. Your other friend gets a similar sock from Ion. Soon they slip away into the shelves, their long, low bodies vanishing but their claws making little scrabbling noises on the hard floors.

It turns out that you didn't need both of them, because there's only one path through the library that Asch followed. The books are only disturbed in one place there, and so the fact that Ion's smell is also on the disturbed books is just confirmation. You give your friends a lot of thanks and scratch their ears before you slip them the scraps you took from the kitchens for them.

Then you snatch the book off the shelves. You intend to bring it back to your rooms and try to puzzle out what you can, if anything, but it turns out you don't have to do that. A piece of paper slides out from between the pages and hits the floor gently. One of your friends yips at it excitedly.

"Yes, you were very helpful," you agree quietly, slipping the book back into place. So this is the message Ion really wanted Asch to get, not anything about the scriptures. You snatch up the paper and hide it in your skirt before taking your friends back outside, giving them more food in thanks for their help.

Then you curl up next to your brother in the stables, under the light of a flickering lamp, and start trying to read Ion's message. Some of the words aren't familiar to you, but you can put together to start.

> _Asch,_
> 
> _I hope that I will be able to tell you of Van's plans in person, but I cannot help but leave a contingency in place. In the event this message reaches you after I am gone... I am sorry, but I have no regrets in my heart. Now that I understand his true goals, I know that no price is too high to stop Van's plans, certainly not my life._
> 
> _The Seventh Fonstone was hidden on Hod. Van claims that it foretells the end of the world. Whether that is true or not, he certainly seems to believe it._
> 
> _To that end, he intends to create a world of replicas to replace this one. A world where no one will know of the Score, so that all will be free of it. He needs your hyperresonance in order to destroy Lorelei itself._
> 
> _Van cannot be allowed to condemn this world and everyone in it in the name of 'saving' it. I will fight against this fate until my dying breath._
> 
> _I know that you will do the same._
> 
> _Ion_

You read the letter twice, still not understanding every part of it, and not just because the words 'contingency' and 'hyperresonance' aren't familiar to you. You don't understand, because it goes against everything you've ever known about Van and Ion.

They were friends, or at least they used to be. They supported each other's goals. But now...

Van has never told you any real details of his plans, and you haven't cared. But you recognize the word 'replica,' because the researchers at the Isle of Feres are always talking about them.

Even though you don't understand the details, you understand _enough_. You understand what it means, that Ion thinks that stopping Van is more important than his own life.

And you understand what it means for you. If Ion is willing to go so far to oppose Van...

You fold the letter carefully the way you found it, and that night you slip it back into the book you found it in. It's important that Asch find it, if Ion...

(The last thing that you want to think about is Ion dying, but he's always been sick. You have always known that it was a possibility, no matter how little you want to face it. Two years ago, before he got so distant from you, he was bedridden for weeks, and you know he came close to dying.)

No one will know, because they're just humans raised by humans, and even though your scent will be on the paper, they won't smell it. No one, especially not Van, will know that you've read it.

Asch and Ion hunt by deception, by pretending to be one thing and really being another. You're not good at hunting like that, but you have to try and learn, now, while Van still thinks you're his.

For the first time, you can't help but think of how stupid Van is. Even if he took you away to serve under him, you will never be his.

You're Ion's. It's Ion who was kind to you, who protected you and taught you to navigate the world of humans. It's Ion who thought you were worth the effort it took, when everyone else in the world thought you were worthless.

If Ion thinks that this world is worth saving, that it's worth his life... Then surely it is worth yours, as well.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time (hopefully): Anise main story _check your footwork_ , which picks up shortly before the end of Hilt and Pommel.


End file.
